Culture, is not just between different ethnicity, race, or different religions. I'm going to share something that happened with Christians who had some cultural differences in a conversation.

I was doing house shifting for my girlfriend's auntie during this week. Her cousin (Sharon) brought a friend along too, lets call her Shirley.

Shirley did not seem to help much in the house moving, as there are quite a couple of Buddhism items to carry. It is quite evident that Shirley is a Christian because she had a cross for her necklace. Things got worse while Sharon was burning incense paper. The incense paper flew to Shirley, but she did not pick up. I was the one who picked it up for Sharon.

During our mealtime, Shirley was complaining about her in-laws to be. She said that they wanted her to kneel down for the tea ceremony. She refused. When asked why, she replied with an exclaim:

“Because I am a Christian!”

This statement came as a shock to me because I did not know that Christians cannot go through tea ceremony with them kneeling in front of their in-laws. Perhaps I am from a Charismatic church, while she is from a traditional church.

It brought me thinking about how other traditional church goers will think of me when I do those things that is considered as a taboo for them. Will they think that I’m not a good Christian? On the other hand, if they were to be stick to their values and teachings, will we think that they are rigid people?

As for myself, I'd only do in accordance to what I feel is right to the bible. Physical symbolic acts may not mean the relevant intention. Although culture may be different, I'll still do what feels right.

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